Atkinson Suspicions Confirmed

After the weekend’s refereeing performance by Martin Atkinson it got me thinking that we never seem to do well when he is in charge of our matches. It was a gut feeling and I wondered if it would be backed up with the statistics. Even before the match on Sunday I thought Atkinson was the worst referee in the Premier League, all the more confusing when the organisation thinks he’s the best.

Sunday was a perfect example of this, for both sides. Barkley didn’t get a yellow card for kicking the ball away and then did for doing nothing vs Can. Lucas didn’t get a yellow for a bad challenge, did for a great tackle then didn’t for a cynical challenge late on. Just two examples of the inconsistencies on show. Obviously certain refereeing decisions stick in the memory, all Everton fans can still refer to the ‘Clattenburg Derby’, but more on that later. Atkinson, however, sent off Jack Rodwell for a fantastic one footed tackle vs Suarez. It was one of the worst decisions I’ve seen, and one of the many reasons my heart sinks when I see Atkinson’s in charge.

Am I right to have that dread though? Absolutely. Atkinson has been in charge of 30 Everton games since coming onto the circuit and we have won just 30% of them. 9 wins, 7 draws, 14 losses. It’s an average points per game (PPG) total of 1.16 which over a season would equate to 43 points. Nearly relegation form. Of all active referees who have taken in charge of at least five of our matches, it’s by far the worst. The closest is Mike Jones who has taken charge of 16 games but with a 1.38 point per game average, however we have only lost 2 of those matches, with 10 of them being draws.

Of course these statistics don’t mean much and can be caused by many factors, it is however interesting to see that a hunch on Atkinson has been backed up by fact.

Everton fans may be reading this thinking, What about Clattenburg? Any non Evertonians reading it may think, what’s important about Clattenburg? He officiated a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in October 2007, gave Liverpool two penalties and Everton two red cards, didn’t send off Kuyt for a horror lunge and didn’t give a Everton a blatant penalty. He wouldn’t take charge of another Everton match until January 2012, 131 matches avoiding the club. Since coming back it has been 8 matches, 3 wins and 4 losses. Not the worst, but close too it. Overall he’s officiated 16, won seven. 3rd worst amongst active referee’s.

Everton don’t have a good time with highly rated referee’s though, and I’m sure most know where I’m going with this. 24th August 2005 and Pierluigi Collina’s last ever match where he ruled out a Duncan Ferguson header for no reason. Evertonians are still bitter about it. Especially when his name gets announced with charity games and acclaims of the ‘best referee ever’ … not to any Evertonian.

There’s the bad and the ugly, what about the good? Resisting the temptation to make a cheap pun, Kevin Friend is high on the list of our favourite referee’s given that we average an impressive 1.86 points per game under him. That’s from 19 games and would equate to 70 point in a season. We are yet to lose in the 11 games officiated by Robert Madley (Four) or Neil Swarbrick (Seven) which is a run we’d hope to keep up. The top spot for the established officials however goes to Anthony Taylor. 17 games in charge with nine wins and just three losses. A 1.88 points per game total that would put us on 72 points over the course of a season. Marriner (33 Matches, 1.52 PPG), Mason (27, 1.48 PPG), Oliver (10, 1.65 PPG), Moss (13, 1.46 PPG) and Probert (11, 1.55 PPG) all fall somewhere in the middle.

So what does this all tell us? It’s all a bit of fun admittedly. If Atkinson is in charge gulp, if Taylor is in charge rejoice. And if Mike Jones is in charge, bet on a draw (10 from 16) and If Jon Moss is, don’t (1 from 13). And as we now eagerly anticipate who is in charge of our next match, just be happy it isn’t Collina.